Lover Enslaved: Thieves of Aurion, Book 1 (20 page)

“There was no other choice. I couldn’t let Gideon die. Not when I was the one responsible for everything.” Her mind flashed back to that awful day, the second most awful day of her life. Gideon shackled as the noose settled around his neck. Finian’s smirking look of triumph.

“How are you responsible for anything?” Dash leaned forward and cupped her face. “For gods’ sake, you saved your brother’s life.” His tone was both reproachful and compelling.

She swallowed against the mass of bitter emotion swelling out of control. “Yes, but I’m the reason our mother’s ended.”

Chapter Fifteen

Mara’s pronouncement slammed Dash in the solar plexus, leaving him stunned. He almost convinced himself he’d misheard her. Until she looked up at him with those clear blue eyes brimming with tears and pain.

“My stupid impulse to honor a dare destroyed my mother’s life and nearly killed my brother.” Her tears finally broke free and streamed down her face towards her trembling lips.

He battled his instinctual urge to hug her tight. What she needed most right now was a voice of reason. Someone to whisk aside her curtain of blame. “You were what, thirteen? What teen doesn’t commit great acts of stupidity at that age?”

She reached up and scrubbed a hand furiously across her cheek. “There’s no excuse for what I did. I hurt the people I love, and nothing will ever make it right.”

Mara’s self-inflicted guilt seemed unreasonable. No one who agonized the way she did over a youthful dare could have deliberately perpetrated a heinous crime. Much less one that ultimately ruined their family. He scooted forward and patted the mattress, urging her to sit beside his hip. “Tell me about this dare.”

Her hand came up again and flicked at a strand of hair clinging to her wet cheek. Shuddering, she inched closer. “I…snuck onto the grounds of Rulach Palace.” She dropped her stare to the silk coverlet.

“And?” he prodded gently.

“Shoved a wild Aurion monkey through an open window. It managed to ransack the whole downstairs before they found it gobbling up a bunch of untended pies in the kitchen.”

He buried the laugh threatening to sneak from his chest. Clearing his throat, he struggled to maintain a straight face. “How the devil did you get a hold of a wild monkey?”

“It wasn’t easy, let me tell you.” She brushed her cheek with her sleeve and finally dislodged the stubborn strand of hair. “They caught me on the visio security system. Needless to say, my mother received a summons the same day. She begged Nalia to spare my punishment, but it was ultimately Finian who made a counter offer.”

The contempt in Mara’s voice spoke volumes. He could easily imagine what the counter offer ended up being.

“My mother wasn’t a whore, but she would have done anything to protect me.” Mara watched him closely, apparently gauging his reaction.

“Of course she wasn’t a whore.” He stroked her cheek reassuringly. “Your mother did what she felt necessary.”

“Yeah, well, it wasn’t good enough for Finian. He didn’t just want my mother’s body—he wanted her completely enslaved to him. So he bonded her with his sex magic.”

A sour taste bloomed in the back of his throat. He dropped his hand from her face and stared at the moisture dampening his fingers. Finian’s despicable behavior shone a glaring spotlight on his own grand scheme to seduce Mara and ultimately free himself. His only comfort was knowing he’d never use his magic to enslave another. The idea sickened him—evidenced by the nausea roiling in his stomach.

“My mother became something worse than an addict. She wept inconsolably each time Finian left her bed. In the end, she couldn’t live without him. She took an entire bottle of pain pills and locked herself in her room. Gideon found her the next morning.”

The grief in Mara’s eyes fisted around Dash’s heart, squeezing until it hurt to breathe. Pushing back his own feelings of guilt, he reached for her. When she slumped against him in weary acceptance, he gently lifted her into his lap. A fierce protectiveness washed over him. The fear she’d displayed when he’d used his magic to free them of the Gromache snare finally made sense.

“You’re afraid of me because of my magic. Because you think I would do to you what Finian did to your mother.” His voice sounded gruff, but he couldn’t stop the raw emotion in his throat. “
Sher ’tian
, I would never do such a thing to you.”

“I used to think all Maddocs were selfish bastards.” She peeked up at him, her cheeks pale and tracked with silvery tear marks. “But I know better now.”

The tight fist around his heart eased and he leaned down to kiss her softly on the lips. A sigh escaped her before she jerked away from him. The rejection knifed through his chest, leaving an icy void.

Lifting his head, he stared at her. “Then why are you pulling away from me like you think I’m about to attack you like some rutting beast?” Stricken that she considered him no better than Finian, he released her and shoved to his feet.

“I’m not.” She scrambled to her knees and gave him a beseeching look. “Dash, this attraction between us is doomed. Nalia made it perfectly clear to me that you’re hands off. As it is, she’d kill me if she knew what’s transpired between us.”

A haze of fury settled over him. At the moment, he’d give anything to wring that bitch fairy queen’s neck. “To do that, she’d have to go through me first. And believe me, it’d be the stupidest thing she’s ever done.”

Worry flashed in Mara’s eyes. “Promise me you’ll stay out of this business between Nalia and me. She’ll only become suspicious.”

He took a deep breath and released it slowly. The thing he was about to say might ultimately bite him in the ass, but he needed to speak it anyway. “Mara, I’ve no intention of returning to Nalia. And I don’t think you should either. In fact, I won’t let you.”

The blood drained from her face, leaving it a white sheet. “But…” Swaying, she dropped back on her rump.

He returned to the bed and cupped her face. “Relax and take a deep breath. This will all work out.”

She knocked his hands away. “No, it won’t. If we don’t return to Rulach, Gideon is good as dead.” Her shoulders jerked and with a sob, she twisted away from him. “I knew this would happen. That you’d cloud my reasoning.”

He frowned. “How the devil am I clouding your reason?”

“You’re a complication I can’t afford,” she said, as if that explained a damn thing. “When this mission is done,
we’re
done. Completely. It’s the way things have to be.”

The callous statement knifed him in the gut. Twisted cruelly to finish him off. “So that’s it? I fetch Nalia her precious rune and you throw me to the wolves.” Not that he was surprised she didn’t want him in a forever kind of way. She’d made it perfectly clear how she viewed his profession.

All hope of being deemed worthy in her eyes bled from his heart. Numb, he stalked to the balcony door, slid it open and stepped outside. The brisk air slapped him, an ironic reflection of the verbal slap Mara just provided.

He leaned over the railing and stared at the cityscape below.
Good gods, I’m an idiot. Aching for a woman who kidnapped me to be another’s pleasure stud
. It’d teach him to deny his body sex for too long. Only made his head loony and his heart weak.

Mara’s sandals made a soft scuff behind him. She stopped next to the rail, but he refused to look at her. Why torment himself further?

“My words came out wrong. Hurtful.” She reached out and smoothed her fingers over his jaw. A shiver ran through him and he closed his eyes, overwhelmed by the fierce longing that roiled inside him.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Unable to help himself, he finally looked at her. The naked emotion canvassed on her face threatened to steal his breath.

“If I didn’t have the responsibility of my brother’s life on my shoulders, I would free you without hesitation.” Her fingers crept from his jaw and stroked the back of his neck. “The idea of Nalia touching you makes me physically ill.”

The admission eased like salve over his wounded ego. With some effort, he tipped his mouth into a wry grin. “Trust me, I feel the same way.”

~ * ~

Lunchtime traffic congested the walkways when Dash exited the Crystal Lodge. Tugging his hat low over his brow, he merged with the other pedestrians. Knowing Mara’s secret definitely complicated matters. He could no longer concentrate on his own selfish motives. Which meant he had to find the rune—and soon.

The hotel’s computing network hadn’t coughed up any leads. Not that he’d expected it. Still it would have saved him the necessity of paying a visit to Mordak Lucio—someone he’d just as soon not see. His old fenceman was more trustworthy than most, but his rambling, monotone diatribes on Aurion antiquities was enough to lull anyone into a coma.

Several blocks down, he spied Lucio’s gilt lettered sign waving in the breeze. After a quick look over his shoulder, Dash ducked inside the shop. The musty smell of old books and leather hung heavy in the air. No one occupied the front portion of the shop so he wove past the aisles packed with antique oddities and strolled into the backroom.

Mordak’s bald scalp shone beneath a hovering spotlamp. Dash craned his neck, trying to get a better view of the exquisite Cordigan oil receiving Mordak’s tender loving care. The luscious colors drew Dash, making him salivate. Nothing compared to a Cordigan. A vision of Mara’s perky nipples sprang into his head.
Well, almost nothing
.

“Dragon’s End, if I’m not mistaken,” Dash said, naming the piece’s title.

“How—?” Mordak lifted his head and blinked behind his illuminated magnifying scope lens. The old man’s eyes tripled in size. Quite comical considering the magnification involved. “Slap my ass and call me Harry.”

Grinning, Dash sent a pointed look towards the man’s naked scalp. “When’s the last time you checked yourself in a looking glass?”

Mordak patted the top of his head with evident pride before shaking the vacu-pen gripped between his fingers at Dash. “Boy, where the hell have you been?”

“Here and there. Mostly there.”

Mordak grunted before motoring his hover chair from behind the workbench. “Looks like you’ve packed on a few pounds. Told you the sweets would do you in.”

Dash surveyed Mordak’s puny frame. “Compared to you, everyone looks enormous.”

“Did you come here to insult me, or is there a reason for your visit?”

The old man hadn’t changed one bit—enjoyed dishing it out, but grew surly as a wartobeast if you tried parrying his sarcastic quips.

“Actually, yes. I wondered if you might have any information on the Rhyann rune.”

Rheumy eyes regarded him from behind the luminous scope. “Why are you asking me? You’re the one who stole it.”

Dash dragged in a peevish breath.
Bloody hell. Mara better appreciate this
. “I need some information not readily available. You’re the first person I thought of.” Well, second anyway. But he’d known Jerrick would be a wasted effort.

The hover chair lowered to the floor and Mordak removed his magnifying scope. Fetching a rag from the canvas bag attached to the chair’s arm, he buffed the lens. “Let’s see. It was first discovered in the early nineteen hundreds, during an excavation outside of Prevanahoe. The Prevanak tribe of faes held ownership of it for many years before the royal family of Artronté took it over in—”

Before he officially fell into the dreaded coma, Dash held up his hand. “Fast forwarding to today, might you have any idea who currently owns it?”

Mordak spent several minutes working his jaw in and out while he pondered the question. “No, can’t say I do.”

Disappointment sat like a bitter pill in the back of Dash’s throat. After bidding the old man goodbye and sending the Cordigan oil a final covetous glance, Dash exited the shop. Across the street, he spied a familiar tattoo.
Jerrick
.

He stared at the back of his brother’s head. Regret and lost hope set anchor in his chest. Just as quick, they were replaced with sizzling fury. If Jerrick hadn’t stolen the damn rune, none of this would be an issue. Nalia wouldn’t have sent Mara after him, and her brother’s life wouldn’t hinge on the return of the Rhyann.

With that thought in mind, Dash darted between the lanes of traffic and stalked after his brother. It wasn’t difficult keeping track of him. Jerrick’s height made him easy to pick out above the sea of bobbing heads.

Two blocks down, Jerrick disappeared through a set of double doors. Slowing his pace, Dash came even with the shop and read the name etched in the tinted glass.
Hulani Fashionables
. Since Jerrick’s idea of fashion was limited to tee shirts and scruffy denim, he figured it a safe bet his brother was on the job. Pushing one of the doors open, he stepped inside.

Music very similar to the gods-awful racket Piper had been listening to pounded around him. Wispy smocks, crystal-beaded frock coats and other fripperies circumnavigated the walls of the main showroom on a fiber optic pulley system. A female with spiky purple hair met Jerrick halfway across the room. The pulley system’s fiber optics reflected beams off her mirrored tube top. She glanced towards the doorway and Dash ducked behind a display of colorful bangles.

Through a crack in the screen he watched Jerrick swing his jacket from his shoulder and extract a vial filled with a murky white substance. The female handed over a wad of merca. After returning most of the bills despite the woman’s protests, Jerrick strode to the doorway. Dash stepped out from behind the silk-covered screen. His brother’s face hardened.